Jay Feely: Jerry Richardson insults intelligence of players

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on February 13, 2011, 10:18 AM EST

Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are considered two of the smarter NFL quarterbacks alive. Panthers owner Jerry Richardson reportedly still treated them like children in a CBA negotiating session last Saturday.

Speaking on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in New York, Cardinals kicker Jay Feely passed along a story from last week’s brief bargaining session in Dallas that Brees and Manning attended.

“Jerry Richardson . . . he’s going to criticize Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and their intelligence in our meeting Saturday?” Feely said. “And sit there and say dismissively to Manning ‘Do I need to help you read a revenue chart son? Do I need to help break that down for you because I don’t know if you know how to read that?'”

We agree with Feely’s point: condescension isn’t going to help get a deal done. Respect is necessary on both sides.

“Logical minds can sit there and come up with a deal, but once you bring up emotion, then you get in the way of logic,” Feely said.

The entire interview is worth a listen, and Feely makes a cogent case on behalf of the players. Our one small quibble is that continuing to publicly talk about the particulars of a negotiating session could get in the way of a deal too.

What a bunch of whiners. A business man, acustom to reading financials asks if a couple of professional athletes, presumably not acustom to reading them, if they need help understanding what they are looking at. They are so insecure they run right out and cry about it in public b/c certainly they should be treated like Harvard MBAs.

Give me a F’in break. If this is where things stand. Where such perceived slights are made public then you won’t see NFL football in America for a very long time.

By the way, you have to be an idiot to think any intelligent person should be able to look at a complex financial statement/analysis and understand it w/o explanation. Experience/training, not raw intelligence is far more important when studying and understanding such documents. No different from a medical report or a complex legal brief.

What’s kind of interesting to me on the topic of the CBA is the political overtones. Conservatives always b*tch and moan about unions (you can see it expressed here on every CBA thread) even though they are ultimately an expression of worker freedoms people aren’t entitled to in many countries. Case in point, Manning is a player rep and he is an arch republican who gets invited over to dinner with the Bush’s on occasion. Manning is trying to do what’s in his best interests, not the fans or owners. Trying to make the best deal for yourself that gets the most money, regardless of anything or anyone else, is a core republican principal. That being said, I think the owners need to give some ground because the players have are more in the right.

how ’bout a max age requirement for owners in the next CBA. Do people like Al Davis, Ralph Wilson Jr, Jerry Jones, and this Richardson fool really belong in a negotiating room? I mean c’mon man, this is getting ridiculous.

By being condescending Richardson shows he’s angry. He’s angry because his team went 1-15 and has to be one of the lowest earning teams in the league as a result of his poor hiring choices. The fact he’s leading the charge for the owners gives me hope for the players…

As someone who moved from Green Bay to South Carolina 20 years ago, let me tell you there is no more condescending, small minded, arrogant piece of trash than a southern “good ole boy”. Half of them are still hung up on losing the civil war! This story doesn’t surprise me one bit.

i’m a lifelong panthers fan who used to love jerry richardson but his attitude these days is ridiculous…you’d think the only owner who is a former player would be much more sympathetic to the views of the player union…instead he’s being a cheap a**…all he wants is a lockout to save even more money…he was probably the happiest person in north carolina when andrew luck decided to go back to stanford b/c it meant his cheap a** didn’t have to pony up the big guaranteed contract to him…i know its not gonna happen but its time for new majority ownership in carolina…richardson is just making it less and less likely that top free agents will sign with the panthers while he is owner (why would you sign with the most belligerent owner)

Owners tend to be successful businessmen who are accumtomed to looking at this kind of data. Drew Brees and Manning, as intelligent as they may be, are not.

Should Richardson be insulting them? No. Why are the owners putting this guy out front instead of people like Robert Kraft?

Should they walk into a meeting unprepared? No. Where is De Smith, who SHOULD know this kind of information?

This negotiation needs to be about what’s best for FOOTBALL, not what’s best for the owners or the players. We’re IN this mess because one side clearly got the better of the other last time, and how did THAT work out for football in general?

Get Richardson out of there, get Manning and Brees out of there, and turn this thing over to the Bob Krafts and the De Smiths to get a deal done – in time – that is fair to BOTH sides.

Richardson intentionally tanked the past season and dumped players because he was hoping for a lockout. Nothing this guy says is either relevant or is worth serious consideration. He’s so shortsighted that he’s willing to risk the NFL for his own personal greed.

These rich old fart owners need to fade away into the sunset. They treat their teams as a personal toy to play with as they please rather than provide a venue for the fans that keep their pockets full.

I don’t know much, but I do know that Jerry Richardson has ultimate responsibility for a team that won ONE game last season. And his team traded away their second round pick, which is now the 33rd overall pick in the draft. These are the facts, and they are indisputable.

some of these “owners” had their millions fed by silver spoon by their ancestors, I doubt intelligence is even adequate in these owners for them to talk smack about football players. What do players do? Work out daily to stay at their professional levels, what do owners do? Sit on their fat asses bitch and watch money come in.

So was the redundant offer you guys made a few days later payback for this slight? Why all this mudslinging smear campaign. I dont want to hear all this crap “he said, he said”. Just get the damn deal done.

Richardson is an ex-player and just because he’s read a report or two, that doesn’t mean that he understands it any more than Brees or Manning, who happen to have extensive financial holdings themselves.

Jerry Richardson is a former player. The only owner who is a former player. The Panthers are a small market team that is somehow in the top half of the NFL as far as revenue is concerned. We hear all the time that the NFL is a business….well here is the business end of it. Just because ratings are up doesn’t mean revenue has increased for the owners. There are a lot of factors at play. The economy has crashed and property value has went way down….players are going to have to take a cut…simple as that. Just because Manning can read a defense doesn’t mean he can read a revenue chart..sorry. http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/25/most-valuable-nfl-teams-business-sports-football-valuations-10_land.html

Unions are a joke! They are like douches, they had their place and time, but not really necessary any more. Are you telling me this players can’t afford proper representation? I agree Richardson probably isn’t handling it the way he should, but the unions proposal of working less and getting paid more is ridiculous! Plain and simple this is an argument of millionaires and billionaires. Millionaires who want to be billionaires and billionaires who want to stay that way.

gbfanforever says:
” … arch republican who gets invited over to dinner with the Bush’s on occasion. Trying to make the best deal for yourself that gets the most money, regardless of anything or anyone else, is a core republican principal ”
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Sombody is watching too much Bill Maher. Leave your politcal feelings off of this site. This is not the huffington post.

And Jay Feely, there is a reason way owners treat their players like idiots, it’s because most of the are! There is a reason why profootballtalk.com has a ticker of days without an arrest. And it rarely gets pass 1 week. You try to find the two most stand up and smartest guys playing in the NFL to go to the meetings. A hospital isn’t going to find their two smartest custodians to go to a board meeting are they?

It’s not an unreasonable question to ask and it is totally germaine to the situation. I keep reading posts how this is a fight between billionaire owners and millionaire players, that NFL revenues are at an all time high so why should any changes be made to the current CBA?

Here’s the answer for those of you who have no more of a grasp of an income statement than do millionaire players who are spoon fed massive amounts of income for playing a game:

1. An increase in a business’s income does not necessarily equate to an increase in the business’s bottom line. Case in point. In 2009, the Green Bay Packers realized a net income of 9.8 million dollars. For you Einstein’s out there, 9.8 million does not equate to billions. And the 9.8 billion, is a reduction from over 30 million in net income in 2007. This is for one of the youngest teams in the league which has a payroll that is not out of line. Yet, at the same time their bottom line is collapsing, their player costs are skyrocketing; up over 15% per year. My guess is that for 2010, the Packers will be very close to showing a net loss for the year. How long do you think something like that can go on before the game everybody loves so much starts to suffer? Will the players start making debt service payments on the stadiums? Will the players pay for all the medical expenses, for the travel expenses, for unifoms and on and on and on? I can just see it now, Antonio Cromartie as head of the NFLPA travel department, or perhaps Brian Urlacher has head of stadium expansion.

The reason that an income statement is germaine to this whole mess is that if the Packers have a business model that is unsustainable, then so do most if not all of the other 31 teams. My guess is that most of the other 31 teams have a more serious problem.

The NFL players receive 56% of revenues, but share in none of the expenses. None. They also share in none of the business risk. If you think that expenses in the NFL are trivial, you’re mistaken. Who do you think pays for the jumbo jets that fly these guys to all of their away games? Who do think pays for the medical expenses, the uniforms, the stadiums, and all the rest? It’s ownership. Do any of you think that the owners should simply be done away with and that the players could handle all of this themselves? If you do, you’re probably on crack.

The prevailing attitude amonst a great many players is that a career in the NFL should guarantee that they never have to work again; and their current “work” in this instance is defined as playing a game and staying in shape. What a sacrifice from a normal existense!

And by the way, there are several players on the Packers roster who earned more in salary than the Packers as a franchse made in 2009.

Are there still some of you out there who don’t understand the basic premise? If so, maybe some of you should withhold mockery of Richardson.

After listening to Jay Feely’s entire interview it’s difficult for me to be on anyone’s “side” in this matter. Feely admits that the publicly owned Packers, whose “books” are public knowledge, have seen their “profits go down the last two years”. The truth is that the Packers’ profits have taken a very PROFOUND downward plunge for the last FIVE years. This time frame just happens to coincide with the timing of the last CBA agreement. Is this a coincidence?

Considering the fact that the Packers’ organization is thought of as an efficiently run business – what might this say concerning what the other franchises may have experienced from a financial standpoint? In spite of the outlandish hubris displayed by Jerry Richardson this doesn’t mean that the Panthers franchise hasn’t gone through tougher times than the Packers. While I don’t know for sure, the Packers situation just might be an indicator of what all the franchises are experiencing.

Feely goes on to proudly introduce into the interview how the NFL has had “record revenues” and “record TV ratings” but he unfortunately never says one word about “record salaries” and “record payrolls”. How convenient for Mr. Feely to do this. He has an obvious bias and it shows.

Having said all this about Mr. Feely I honestly believe that there is a big problem amongst the owners when it comes down to “big market teams” and “small market teams”. This problem and the owners’ own greed and biases must be overcome in order for a new CBA to be agreed upon.

some of these “owners” had their millions fed by silver spoon by their ancestors, I doubt intelligence is even adequate in these owners for them to talk smack about football players. What do players do? Work out daily to stay at their professional levels, what do owners do? Sit on their fat asses bitch and watch money come in.
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Say what you will about JR…and I am not saying he hasn’t acted a little nutty lately because he has…but in the case of Peyton Manning vs Jerry R., Peyton’s the silver spoon guy. Peyton was born to a rich family and had every advantage and the family name behind him in the only town where that name was advantageous in the FAMILY BUSINESS of FOOTBALL. Jerry Richardson is a self made man. He made a pittance as a player and made his fortune from the ground up with Hardees. Peyton probably never worked a single day at a real job (like at a Hardees for example) other than being a football player. Can’t say that about JR. Both have had their successes but Manning started with hella advantages…that is a FACT.

Asking someone if they understand complex financials is not insulting his intelligence. Manning and Brees get paid to dissect defenses, not this.

Should they be insulted if a lawyer asks them if they understand a complex legal argument?

Being intelligent does not mean you are wise and knowledgable in all subjects.

The question is not insulting. What’s insulting is that the players think they are above being questioned.

Businessmen asking if the people they are negotiating with understand the business documents is natural.

The players need to stop pretending that they are owners and know everything about owning a football team. They bring in lawyers for the legal issues. Why not have a qualified financial professional at the table to help the players through the financial issues?

thebigolddog says:
Feb 13, 2011 10:33 AM
What a bunch of whiners. A business man, acustom to reading financials asks if a couple of professional athletes, presumably not acustom to reading them, if they need help understanding what they are looking at. They are so insecure they run right out and cry about it in public b/c certainly they should be treated like Harvard MBAs.

Give me a F’in break. If this is where things stand. Where such perceived slights are made public then you won’t see NFL football in America for a very long time.

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Hey idiot, he was obviously being very condescending in nature. Do you honestly think Feely would have even brought it up if he wasn’t being a jerk about it? I don’t think patronizing the GOAT is the best strategy… Respect is powerful. Apparently this loser of an owner has no idea what that is.

We all know that the Panthers suck and you now know that their owner is an old you-know-what, if you didn’t already. Not that anyone really cares what this old loser thinks, but this is just further proof that this deal is not going to get done. Especially with this old, bulldog looking, douche being “chief negotiator” for the owners. Without the players, the owners would have nothing to “own”. I suggest they understand that before they lose everything great about the NFL; the players.

Baloney. One billion is taken right off the top so they most certainly do share in the expenses or do you think that the owners spend that on wine, women and song instead of putting it back into their business? Also, genius, the players have given the owners credits for NFL Europe and other ventures and that came out of their share of the pie so again, they did share in the expenses and with the new deal, the players are being asked to give up another billion that the owners are supposedly putting toward expenses so again, the players ARE sharing in the expenses. Why don’t you look at the facts before you write this crap.

Oh and who give’s a rat’s butt about Green Bay. Their business model isn’t the same as Dallas or New York or Carolina and has almost no basis in reality when it comes to the rest of the NFL or do you see them hosting the NBA All-Star game, several college football games and other events like Jerry has at the Palace Near Dallas? Also, some of the losses by the Packers can be attributed to their INVESTMENTS, which have tanked because of the economy and have gone toward their “losses” and Forbes has called them on that fact or did you not know that?

$9 billion is sitting on the table. I don’t know if the owners or the players got the better deal last time around, I just know it doesn’t make any sense to get in a pissing contest right now, just get er done.

I’ve met JR in person several times and he’s a very cordial and patient man, I have no doubt that something lead to him making comments like this (assuming they are true). I can imagine owners getting very frustrated with players debating them on the topic of revenue, economics, etc… just because Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are smart QB’s doesn’t mean they know squat about financials.

Sounds to me like Feely is only giving us 50% of what happened to portray the owners in a negative light, which he certainly would have a vested interest in doing…

No idea whats going on with all these harsh criticisms of the Panthers.. They won their division and had a first round bye two seasons ago. I guess a couple of bad seasons means a team “sucks” now and forever? Richardson is crusty, and doesn’t communicate well – but those who are saying he isn’t committed to winning are misguided, misinformed and pedantic.

Don’t forget, Jerry Richardson is the owner that fired his two sons from the team. Fired them. Think about that and ask yourself what it is like to negoiate with him. He is cold and calculating and will even fire his own sons if you get in his way.

I think Feely nailed it when he said this is really about revenue sharing btween the owners. People like Jerry Jones don’t want to share revenue with the small market clubs like Buffalo so they want to get that money from the players. The players aren’t asking for anything, it’s the owners who want an extra $2B off the top so they can do away with revenue sharing altogether

. And while profits are “down” for the Packers over the last two years there has also been a massive recession going on this Country during that time as well which has affected the average fan’s ability to buy hats, jerseys, etc… The NFL owners are unhappy that while most industries have fully recovered from the recession (even though most people haven’t) they find themselves unable to cut costs by slahing jobs and moving them overseas like every other industry. Therefore the only way to maintain growth is to take more from their business partners vis a vis the players. It’s baically psychotic greed on the part of the owners.

JR already tried the Colts way of building a team when he had Polian as his GM. It doesn’t win SBs. SOFT, $$$ offensive skill player dominated FINESSE PASS OFFENSE TEAMS DO NOT WIN SBs…never have never will. It’s one reason I HATED the direction the Pats went on offense in 07…I knew that team wouldn’t win crap. They were too soft on offense and their D was too average to help them win. 99 Rams had the #4 defense in the NFL in PA. No one cares, they always talk about their megawatt O, but they don’t win doody caca without that D. Their O was very, very, very average (and far below THEIR average) in that SB.

The ONE SB win generated by the Polian way (3 teams he has run, one SB win)was on the back of your D and run game in the playoffs. Your QB played JUST like Roeth did this year in that run…some clutch drives when his team needed it the most and some crap stats & some crap play too.

The Steelers’ way, which JR prefers DOES win SBs: build through the draft, have continuity with the HC and GM. He hasn’t quite hit a homerun with the actual guys in charge yet like Pitt has, but it works.

burntorangehorn says:
Feb 13, 2011 10:19 AM It’ s certainly valid to question the intelligence of most NFL players, but I don’ t think Manning or Brees should be included in that.
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Why is it valid to question the intelligence of most nfl players, and why leave brees and manning of that list just b/c payton has a big ass head doesnt make him smart and is there grey matter in that thing on brees face

Just because you know football doesn’t mean you know finances. I’m not aware of any businesses owned by Brees or Manning.
Also Feely can yap all he wants about emotion, but the players have already served up a heaping helping of it. Leaking select quotes is also emotion. I somehow doubt Richardson just got up that moment and question whether Manning knew how to read the report. What did Manning say before hand? Feely admits he wasn’t even there.
Hell Feely contradicts himself when he says profits hasn’t gone down, but then says the Packers profits have gone down. He also refuses to say what level of profit for the owners is ok (he was asked 3 times).

millertime30 says Feb 13, 2011 10:47 AM
how ’bout a max age requirement for owners in the next CBA. Do people like Al Davis, Ralph Wilson Jr, Jerry Jones and this Richardson fool really belong in a negotiating room? I mean c’mon man, this is getting ridiculous
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lmao!
i knew one moron would have to mention al davis and/ or the raiders…
lol

No, what they need is for the wealthier owners to invest in their stadiums so they can make their money like them. Jerry Jones has to share football related revenue with his fellow owners BUT he makes an incredible amount of revenue outside of the NFL in that stadium that he pockets (and don’t cry me a river and say that he’s paying for the stadium because if he is then he must be doing it for tax purposes because he’s made more than the $1.12 billion that it cost to build the stadium and $475 million of that was paid for by the NFL and the city of Arlington). A fully funded PSL for Jones is worth more than $900 million and he only had to come up with a little over $600 million to pay off “his” share of the stadium. If he’s such a financial genius then he should be able to find money for those other owners so they won’t have to take any of his but he’s not. Put him in Minnesota and he’s in the same boat as Wilf.

It’s funny but when the weaker AFL franchises were about to fold, the richer ones propped them up and the league survived (For that reason alone, Bud Adams should have been put into the Hall Of Fame, along with Hunt and Wilson) and eventually merged with the NFL while the so-call financial geniuses like Jerry Jones seem hell bent on making as much money as possible and not sharing it, even if it means that other franchises have to fold.

This is coming from a guy that let the “Denny’s” restaurant situation get totally out of hand back in the 90’s. Remember, not wanting the serve blacks. That included several black US Secret Service Agents.

This guy forced his own kids out of the front office after a heart transplant operation. He is a relic, clown and pretty sure, a racist.

Someone, take this old goat out and shoot him, like Goodell for one. He is going to kill the NFL for next year if they let him continue.

He shouldn’t be at the table with the adults. He needs to seated with Al Davis and Jerry Jones and the kiddies table.

That small man is pursuing a lawsuit against a DC rag no one reads that was critical of his ownership of the Skins.

Meanwhile, his high character, high quality roster consists of guys involved in nightclub stabbings and road rage incidents.

Dan Snyder. Loser.

Sue me.
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I couldn’t like this more than once, so I reposted it to say LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE (x1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). Plus 10. Talk about your ultimate backfires. BECAUSE Snyder made such a big deal out of that story, instead of only a few thousand people reading it, it turned into an enormous national headline. HA! Serves you right Dan. Moron. Keep losing people millions and millions of dollars (Gates, Redskins organization etc) than attempting to find someone else to blame. Sucks when someone finally puts all the pieces together and exposes you for what you truly are, doesn’t it?

Superfbfan the article you linked to disproves your conclusion that “Just because ratings are up doesn’t mean revenue has increased for the owners.”

In fact “the NFL’s profitability has never been stronger” and “Aggregate league revenue rose 5.8% to $8 billion”.

Also, “The most valuable NFL team is the Dallas Cowboys: Its value increased a league high 9%, to $1.8 billion” and “netted an additional $12 million last year over what it makes on the Cowboys, thanks to events like the NBA All-Star game, boxing and concerts. The team’s overall operating income hit $143 million, a record for a U.S. sports franchise.”

All quotes above from your Forbes article by Kurt Badenhausen. Next time be sure to read the whole post, not just the headline, which is often misleading (just like the statistical “average” revenue for an NFL team…)

READY FOR A LOCK OUT !!! A few things I want to see changed when/ IF the NFL returns:

1. Pocket Passers – guys with 2 left feet ( manning, brady etc) being protected because of their immobility. The QB position has become such a protected position to protect the one dimensional players, women should be allowed to play the position.

2. Tubs of 350 lb lard – retain guys that have a Body Mass Index of less than 50% ! The game is so slow ( 3 -4 hours ) because we have to wait while the obese guys ” walk ” to the huddle, to the other end of the field etc. It is also detrimental to their health to have fat, obese guys living / working at such unhealthy weights. Once they retire, they never live normal lives and are often confined to the bed or a wheel chair.

3. Officiating- there has to be a more electronic method to ascertain penalties. The NFL can set a new standard by removing so much authority and potential errors from referees. The untimely calls and inconsistent nature of the calls often determine the outcome of the game. I’m thinking laser beams to determine off-sides, censors built into the uniforms & helmets to determine contact / pass interference etc. One referee can be retained to review the occasional replay ( no more than 3 times a game ).

Step up the game or cease to exist.Kinda like how boxing is on it’s last leg, since MMA gives guys with testosterone the fast paced violent clashes we desire.

how ’bout a max age requirement for owners in the next CBA. Do people like Al Davis, Ralph Wilson Jr, Jerry Jones, and this Richardson fool really belong in a negotiating room? I mean c’mon man, this is getting ridiculous.
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Why do you got to bring Ralph Wilson into this? Say what you want about his ability to win football games, but the man was instrumental in the AFL-NFL merger, and he was the only owner that said this current expiring CBA was no good (before Mike Brown followed suit). Every talked trash about him back then, yet nobody is eating crow now. Get a freakin’ clue.

Richardson may be a great businessman, but he is a terrible negotiator. Feelys’ point was that richardson was critical of Brees and Mannings’ intellegence. If you are trying to get the other side to see your point, condescension isn’t a good tactic. If richardson is so smart he should know that.

detroitfootsketball says:
Feb 13, 2011 2:59 PM
burntorangehorn says:
Feb 13, 2011 10:19 AM It’ s certainly valid to question the intelligence of most NFL players, but I don’ t think Manning or Brees should be included in that.
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Why is it valid to question the intelligence of most nfl players, and why leave brees and manning of that list just b/c payton has a big ass head doesnt make him smart and is there grey matter in that thing on brees face

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You will get your answer when we see who gets the better of the next agreement.

One would think that an intelligent person would be prepared for an interruption in their revenue stream, especially when that person knows that their contract (CBA) is expiring.

Who do you think can go longer without NFL revenues – the owners or the players? My money is on the former…

If peyton manning is such a good union man why is he concerned about being the highest paid instead of sharing with his brother players. It seems the players take care of themselves and their agents first then accuse the owners of doing the same thing. I do not see players sharing with each other or the highest paid donating to the retired players who paved the way for them. Pay players equally and give them incentive contracts so that they earn their money and the stiffs don’t become millionaires because they had a good college year or two. Also set up a compensation package for long term injuries.

wow, these are some of the dumbest comments I have ever read. First the Panthers went 2-14 not 1-15 get your facts straight. second to say Richardson is one of the cheapest owners in the league is just stupid. With the exception of this past season Jerry Richardson has ranked in the top for high spending owners. It’s clear that alot of people who comment on this site have no idea of what the CBA really is, and to side with cry baby players who make millions of dollars to play a game is just pathetic. “oh wah! I once made 9 million a year and now I only make 8 million how will i make it in the world?” Peyton maybe a great QB, but he is smug and overpaid to play a game. to assume he can’t read an expense report just may be the right thought process.

And then Peyton asks Jerry Richardson “Do I need to help you read a cover 3 double bogue zone blitz with a safety spy? Do I need to help break that down for you because I don’t know if you know how to read that?”

I am so tired of the owners crying poor while having stadiums built for them To believe that the Green Bay Packers only had income of 9.8 million is a joke. Let the owners open the books.
Also the values of the teams keep climbing